All Imperas News

<b>Abstract</b>:
In this paper the current state of embedded software development is discussed. A comparison is made between hardware-based and virtual platform-based methodologies. The management issues of software predictability and delivery risk are discussed. Software verification requirements are introduced. There are many advantages of using Virtual Platform based software development approaches and these are shown. Virtual Platforms and simulation can complement a hardware based software development approach.
<p>The Imperas tool architecture is explained and it is shown how this is used to build a virtual platform and how this enables timing based software simulation to run at upto 500 MIPS whilst using quanta of between 1,000 and 100,000. The control flow between the platform, simulator, intercept library and procesor model is shown.</p>
<p>An approach to Power Modeling with dynamic frequency and voltage scaling (DVFS) is outlined with an introduction on how the Power Model is developed. There are slides with speakers notes on Design-Time, Run-Time, and System-Level Power Analysis and parameters. </p>

Oxford, United Kingdom, 2nd November, 2016 - Imperas Software Ltd., the leader in high-performance software simulation and virtual platforms, and Test and Verification Solutions (T&VS), a leading hardware verification and software testing provider, today announced that they have partnered to promote state-of-the-art software verification and validation (SW V&V) methodologies for embedded systems.

Imperas offers virtual platform (software simulation) based tools and solutions for early software development and more comprehensive software testing. In addition to SW V&V, use cases include porting and bring up of hypervisors and operating systems, advanced software analysis such as non-intrusive code coverage, profiling and memory monitoring, and support for advanced methodologies such as Continuous Integration (CI) and fault injection. Imperas offers a wide variety of processor models and systems architectures from a range of IP and chip vendors through Open Virtual Platforms (OVP) models and platforms.

Oxford, United Kingdom, October 25, 2016 - Imperas Software Ltd., the leader in high-performance software simulation and virtual platforms, today announced their support for the eSOL eMCOS RTOS and eBinder debugger. eSOL is the leading RTOS and embedded software supplier in Japan. This partnership and the new capabilities accelerate embedded software development, debug and test across a variety of markets, including automotive. These solutions are available now.

Ann Steffora Mutschler of Semiconductor Engineering has written an article on the challenges of heterogenous systems.

As more types of processors are added into SoCs—CPUs, GPUs, DSPs and accelerators, each running a different OS—there is a growing challenge to make sure these compute elements interact properly with their neighbors.

Adding to the problem is this mix of processors and accelerators varies widely between different markets and applications. In mobile there are CPUs, GPUs, video and crypto processors. In automotive, there may be additional vision processing accelerators. In networking and servers there are various packet processing and cryptography accelerators. Server applications traditionally have relied on general-purpose CPU, but the future brings more dedicated acceleration engines, which may be customized for specific applications and may be implemented using FPGAs.

Ann Steffora Mutschler of Semiconductor Engineering has written an article on how to improve reliability in automotive.

As the amount of electronic content in a car increases, so does the number of questions about how to improve reliability of those systems.

Unlike an IoT device, which is expected last a couple of years, automotive electronics fall into a class of safety-critical devices. There are standards for verifying these devices, new test methodologies, and there is far more scrutiny about how all of this happens.

“We are moving from ADAS to autopilot, from autopilot to autonomous driving,” said...

Hypervisors are seeing an increased level of adoption, but do they help or hinder the development and verification process? The answer may depend on your perspective.

In the hardware world, system-level integration is rapidly becoming a roadblock in the development process. While each of the pieces may be known to work separately, as soon as they are put together, the interactions between them can create a number of problems. The industry is working to come up with some tools and methodologies that constrain this problem.

In the software world, they are taking a different approach. They are using a hypervisor to create well-defined interfaces between the individual software blocks, ensuring that one cannot disturb another. This enables applications to be built that are more robust, provide a significant increase in security, allow for staged development and enables the controlled intermixing of attributes of a real time environment, with a more flexible operating system environment such as Linux.

Oxford, United Kingdom, September 27, 2016 - Imperas Software Ltd., today announced the expansion of the Imperas University Program, with 34 universities now participating. The worldwide Imperas University Program was created to inspire and support the next generation of technologists and innovators. It grants academic and research institutions access to the tools and technology needed to address difficult challenges across embedded software and systems, from development and test, to quality and standards compliance, to security and IoT, to system architecture and optimization. Through this program, Imperas software reaches thousands of students and professors worldwide every year.

The Imperas University Program encourages participation in the embedded systems community in three ways: use on research projects, use in the classroom, and sharing of virtual platform models through the Open Virtual Platforms (OVP) Library.

Universities currently using Imperas and OVP tools and models for coursework and research include:

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Related Comments

Our integration with Imperas brings Ashling closer to our vision to become the provider of a complete RISC-V turnkey solution.

Guy Rabbat, President and CEO

Ashling Systems Corporation

Virtual platforms are providing significant benefits to our software team, as they make it easier to maintain existing software and develop new applications for existing avionics systems. Key attributes of virtual platforms are realizing far greater speed of software simulation, especially for multiprocessor systems, having more standard approaches to develop models to, and being able to use open source models of processors and peripherals already available, making it easier for us to build our own efficient models of complete avionics systems.